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1.2.3-Columbina
Brick!Club 1.2.3: The Heroism of Passive Obedience THIS CHAPTER I CANNOT EVEN STOP HUGO YOU CANNOT DO THIS TO MY HEART I WON’T ALLOW IT help if this me on day what sixteen what hope is there for me in the coming months UGH HE IS SO EXCITED AND CHILDLIKE AND STOP JUST STOP When he comes in and he’s all “Ugh whatever I was about to finally get some sleep on a bench and some lady told me to come here but no one else has wanted me, so I’m pretty sure you won’t either, but whatever, I knocked, I told you my story, go ahead and kick me out.” Like, wow, his optimism evaporated quickly (although understandably) as he went from “Sure I can get a room at this fancy inn” at sunset to “I am so past caring because I will never get to stay anywhere ever” by 8pm. He is just SO DONE. And the Bishop doesn’t say anything, there’s no reassurance, no sympathy, he doesn’t even address Valjean until he’s like “Come on, sit down, everything’s sorted,” he doesn’t even say ‘yes, you can stay’ to Valjean, just goes straight ahead and acts, as though it’s perfectly obvious. And then Valjean is all like excited and omg he sounds like such a puppy even though the point we’re trying to make is that the Bishop doesn’t treat him like a dog, here’s me undoing that by being all WHO’S A GOOD BOY YES YOU ARE and I’m sorry but “A bed with a mattress and sheets, like the rest of the world!“ IT IS RAINING ON MY FACE. I often feel, now that I’m a grown-up, that I should be slightly put off by these sort of scenes in fiction, where poor / ugly / discriminated race / whatever characters get disproportionately excited over being treated vaguely humanely because it’s probably kind of patronising and problematic but ever since I was a tiny little thing, it has hit all of my buttons and I don’t know why, well, I have some ideas but no one wants to listen to boring self-indulgent armchair psychology so we’ll move right along. (The same buttons also get hit by Beauty and the Beast type stories and with my love of Nurse archetypes let’s just say I really have a thing for people caring for people so this book is basically crack to me.) (Just wait til we get to little Cosette where basically all of these three things happen at once, my post is just going to be a page of keyboard smashing and crying emoticons and I won’t be sorry for it.) ANYWAY, he is just nattering away with his invisible tail wagging and he gets all excited at being called ‘sir’ and STOP JUST STOP. And Valjean and his story about the bishop in the prison and our Bishop saying nothing, just like when G went on about his carriage and I want to make intelligent commentary about it but I’m just like “YES NO I AGREE WITH WHAT YOU ARE SAYING THERE HUGO” And I just UGH BISHOP EVERYTHING YOU SAY I TAKE BACK EVERY TIME I WAS MEAN TO YOU FOR SASSING PEOPLE YOU HAVE REDEEMED YOURSELF. A++++ work forever, Bishop. (Although still, this does kind of go to my theory about how the Bishop is better at being kind to those truly in need, spiders and convicts and so on, than to those in need of, say, spiritual guidance and friendship, but not protection = revolutionaries and other priests who he thinks have too much stuff and so on. I personally think he’s taking the easy road there. It’s easier to feel sympathy for the victims of bullies than the bullies themselves, even though the bullies themselves are generally suffering just as much.) (After school specials on this theme are another one of my favourite things.) (Hi, my name’s Columbina let me share literally all of my literary kinks with you.) And Mme. Magloire, immediately going from “LOCKS WE NEED LOCKS THERE IS A DANGEROUS PREDATOR OUT THERE” to getting the Good Wine of her own accord. (Although maybe she’s hoping that after nineteen years, a couple of glasses will be enough to knock him out for the night <——) Finally, idk, putting out all the silver, is it such an “innocent ostentation”? Because it seems like kind of a dick move to me. I know he doesn’t mean any harm, but, hey there guy with literally nothing in the world, come in, have dinner, look at my shiny shiny plates, they’re so great, I have more than I need, but I just like to look at them because they’re so shiny and expensive.